The Band's History

Cleethorpes Band has a long history of 130 years in the town. Owen Harden has been researching our roots and has kindly contributed this article: -

Memory

My earliest memories of Cleethorpes Borough Band, as it was then known, are of joining it in January 1960. The bandroom, at this time, was situated in the Cleethorpes Council yard in Poplar Road. This building was a dismal place, full of cobwebs and soot from the 'heating system' which was a coke stove in the centre of the room. The stove was surrounded by old twin bus seats on which the few players sat and hopefully survived (if they didn't pass out from inhaling smoke and coke fumes) until the end of practice, when the room had just begun to warm up! Thankfully within a year things had improved somewhat as can be seen in this Evening Telegraph article of 1961.

The article provides an interesting start to a history of the main events of the band.

Above is an early photograph of the band (date and details of the players are, as yet, unknown). The picture was featured in a Hobbies for All Exhibition at the Cleethorpes Memorial Hall in the 1970s. The name D. Humberstone is written on the back of the original picture. Any further information regarding this photograph would be gratefully received.